ANOTHER HOUSE-TO-HOUSE DELIVERY VAN.
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A Tradesman's Van which Can be Controlled from the Running Board.
MCH attention is being devoted in America to the problem of designing vehicles suitable for house-to-house delivery work, such as are required by dairymen, bakers and similar classes of tradesmen. With the ordinary type of vehicle -it is usually necessary to employ two persons per van—one to drive and the other to make deliveries—the round to be covered taking too long to complete where the driver has to be continually mounting and dismounting from his seat before he can pick up the milk or other commodities to be delivered. Even where two persons are employed this is not very economical, inasmuch as a good deal of the driver's time is being wasted while the other employee is engaged in delivering.
Some three or four months ago we illustrated and described a special vehicle which has been brought Out by a Detroit concern and which is arranged to be driven from the customary seat in front, when journeying from headquarters to the starting point of the delivery round. When this point is reached the machine can be controlled from the centre of the running board on either side where supplementary steering and driving gear are provided.
The van in question, which is known as the Divco, has now a competitor in the Step-N-Drive vehicle which has lately been introduced by the Buffalo Commercial Co., 1,2554,271, Niagara Street, Buffalo, N.Y. We are this week able to supplement the few details of this machine which we gave in a short paragraph in one of our news pages in our issue for May 1st last.
The purpose .of the Step-N-Drive machine is identical with that of the vehicle first referred to, but the plan adopted in attaining this object is somewhat different. The basis of the vehicle is the Chevrolet utility lorry chassis, in which, however, the ordinary frame is replaced in this case by one that is, as it were, cranked downward in that portion of its length where the driver's floorboards are located, the low, horizontal portion of the cranked part of the frame forming on both sides a strong support for the running board.
The ordinary fixed driver's seat is dispensed with, its place being.talten by a single light seat with an upholstered back, from which the driver, when running from headquarters to the starting point of the delivery round, controls the vehicle by means of the usual clutch and brake pedals, these, in accordance with the American rule of the road, being located together with the steering wheel on the left side of the van. On reaching `the place where deliveries commence the driving seat is folded forward out of the way, and the driver then controls the movement of the ear in a standing position from the near-side running board, where a wide supplementary pedal for combined clutch and brake control is provided. From this position the driver is also able to operate the ordinary steering wheel, the change-speed and hand-brake levers. The first part of the action of the double-purpose pedal is to disengage the clutch, further. movement applying the foot brake, while the clutch is held disengaged.
The running board upon which the driver stands is only 13 imsi from the ground, so that it is quite an easy matter for him to step up and down from the vehicle. The propeller shaft is protected where it passes by a Sheet
metal shield through the floor of the driver's cab.
The van body has loading dimensions of 8 ft. Ok in. by 3 ft. 9k ins. by 5 ft. and is loaded from the rear through double doors, which are 4 ft. 8 ins. high. To facilitate deliveries the van body is quite open at the front of the loading space. The floor of the body is 14i ins, higher than the running board. On the right forward portion of the driver's cab there is a space measuring 18 ins. by 14 ins, available as additional loading space for small baskets, crates or packages. For use in bad weather sliding doors running on roller bearings and measuring 5 ft. 11 ins, high by 1 ft. 11 ins, wide are provided on both sides.
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